Chapter 17

Her breathing was sucked out of her as time went on with no rest, her tears flowed like rain with the blackest and fullest clouds, and her life force drained with the blood drawn. Aurora had to stop to catch her breath and ended up falling. She cried out and leaned on the tree, sobbing. She did not wish this to happen. It was not supposed to be this way! She's lost it all and just when she felt like it could be something given back to her, it was taken. Right before her eyes, by one she trusted, no less! What is she to do now? She wished she had her aunt's wisdom. Many times she thought about her, but being away from Earth has caused a kind of blockage. She finds it hard to access memories the longer she's away but times of despair or strong emotion bring it out clear as day.

She can't hear them and she needs to rest, surely she can find refuge nearby. The daemon world was natural and magic. That means no electricity. Her eyes have been amended by a daemon so she could work better and not be a nuisance, but gosh the remembered burn still wakes her up whenever she feels the sun shine onto her eyes. She even learnt how to call up a ball of light but she seldom uses it because it's so close to her eyes. Luckily she won't be needing it here, not unless she wants to announce her whereabouts. She found a cave a few miles away and it seems too small for one of their pets to get her in there. Once in, she found it hard to do anything apart from falling to the ground in exhaustion. Her throat was so parched, it was all she could do but imagine water. She's been running for days and she has not seen any lakes. She could almost hear water dropping and it was so annoying and sad at the same time because she wants it so bad but she knows it was only her mind playing tricks. She doesn't know how much longer she can keep this up. She hears a scraping sound and tears fall with no regard. She just needs to rest! Just a few more minutes! It's always like this, she finds shelter to rest but it never lasts the whole day or night. A part of her wants to give up so she doesn't have to suffer anymore and it's a part that seems to be growing with each passing. She sees what creature made such a screech but she's too tired to get up. Fortunately for her, they just ignored her like she was not there. She wonders again if she's the only one of them that survived and what to do after all the running. If anything can be done. History will be the future. That was the words that changed everything. But how were they supposed to know that it would happen so soon? None of them were ready. None of them wanted to be ready. She could not keep her eyes open and soon fell into darkness with one last thought, she will bring Zyprexas end.

The sounds of water dripping woke her. Her thoughts were to find the sound and nothing else. She didn't look around her, she didn't move in silence. She didn't care about anything, only to get to the water. Luckily, she was still undetected in the cave but her movements did attract unnecessary attention. When she tracked the dripping to a small stream that ended in a pool of water, she submerged herself and sobbed in relief.

Aurora was in such haste that she went into the pool with her clothes and now has nothing to wear. She also knew she needed to get away from this place but no one found her so far and this is the best place she found in days! She fears parting from it. She needed to eat, needed to hunt. Spending time with the Draconians has taught her to appreciate her simple life on earth and made her think, why on earth she wanted it gone?

The Draconians lived life to its fullest but also worked for everything. Nothing was free. There was no money but you paid by way of food, treats, and the like. You also have to learn who to trust to make a bargain with and who not to. Here, daemons and heamans can be slaves, like Aurora was to the Draconian family. Before she was sold then ran away. She knew when she got here that she needed to learn everything she could to survive and so she bargained for knowledge from those around her. They thought she was a fool, asking for such a lowly request but knowledge is the source that contains power. Instead of teaching her, they just imparted it to her brain and now, they probably realize the true meaning of the gift of knowledge. Of course, knowledge is just one part of the equation. Knowing what and how to do something is different from actually doing it. Life was so different from earth but she could imagine earth being like this with no electricity and surrounded by forests and lakes. Predators on the prowl and prey hidden and we being both, predators and prey.

She had no choice but to leave her clothes behind to dry but she made do with plant leaves for now. There's not much to hunt for here and she had to abandon her staff so she had to settle for the sour berries. She looked for anything she could use for weapons since her magic is useless against daemons. She found that she could use their magic but it was a bit tricky getting that information. She read as much as she could though - in the many languages she bargained for but she could never really practice and being on the run didn't allow it either but she knows much. She did try only one spell and it worked. She tried the spell only so she could memorize the vast information. It annoyed the hell out of her that she has so much that she could do if only she could have time to practice what she has learned. There is also the fact that daemons can track magic signatures that are not properly blocked and she won't know for sure if her blocking spell works or not until it's too late so magic cannot be used. It's not difficult because even at home, on Earth, she didn't use magic often. It was conditioned in her to blend in with the humans. It was conditioned in most witches throughout history for the past three centuries-which is why spells were lost.